Air Monitoring

Water Monitoring

Wildlife Contaminants

Biodiversity and Disturbance

Welcome

Welcome to the Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring Information Portal. On this portal, you can access information related to the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring, including maps of the monitoring region, details of the monitoring sites, the most up-to-date data collected by our scientists in the field, and scientific analysis and interpretation of the data and results. As more data becomes available over the coming months, this site will evolve with new updates and features, and become more comprehensive. As it grows, the environmental monitoring data and information available on this site will enable concerned parties to conduct their own analysis and draw their own conclusions.

In announcing the Joint Plan in February 2012, the Governments of Canada and Alberta committed to implement scientifically rigorous, comprehensive, integrated and transparent environmental monitoring of the oil sands region to ensure this important national resource is developed in a responsible way. As a result of our working together, the implementation of monitoring enhancements is already well underway and will continue to be phased in over the next two years to ensure installation of necessary infrastructure, incremental enhancement of activities and appropriate integration with existing monitoring activities in the region.

By the time the three-year plan is fully-implemented in 2015:

The new environmental monitoring, building upon existing capacity, will contribute to an improved understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development. For a detailed account of each of the elements of the implementation plan, please consult the full Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring.

the number of sampling sites will be higher and over a larger area;

the number and types of parameters being sampled will increase;

the frequency (how many times) that sampling occurs each year will be significantly increased;

the methodologies for monitoring for both air and water will be improved; and

an integrated, open data management program will be created.

We invite you to visit this site often and to learn more about the important scientific monitoring work being done in the oil sands region.